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Samsung has a reputation for being at the forefront of smartphone display technology, with both last year’s Galaxy S6 and Note 5 boasting the best displays in the business for their time. Samsung appears to have struck gold once again with its Galaxy S7, as testing from DisplayMate reveals that the new handset has the best display around.

DisplayMate was granted access to an early production unit to put through its usual selection of display tests. Impressively, Samsung has managed to significantly improve the S7’s display when compared with the Galaxy S6. The overall display contrast and Contrast Rating for High Ambient Light results have shown notable improvements, and the maximum brightness is up a whopping 24 percent on the previous gen model, reaching 855 cd/m2.

The Galaxy S7 has three display modes, each with quite different color gamuts.

The testing suggests that the Galaxy S7 manages to keep up with and in some cases also exceeds the Galaxy Note 5, showing that Samsung has managed to considerably shrink down its leading display technology without detrimentally impacting on image quality or peak brightness. The Galaxy S7 matches or exceeded the Note 5 when it comes to Highest Absolute Color Accuracy, Highest Peak Brightness, Highest Contrast Rating in Ambient Light, Highest Screen Resolution, Highest Contrast Ratio, and Smallest Brightness Variation with View Angle.

The results showed very good contrast accuracy, although it was noted that this is slightly too high, as it typical of Samsung’s AMOLED panels. The panel also provides excellent accuracy with vivid colors, and only very small color and brightness shifts when rotating the viewing angle.

Samsung Galaxy Note 5 display is the best in any smartphone

August 19, 2015

The rundown also reveals a few interesting points about Samsung’s latest display. The handset comes with a Personalized Automatic Brightness Control that remembers the display brightness settings that you set for different ambient light levels. There are three different display color pre-sets with notably different gamut profiles: Adaptive Display, AMOLED Photo, and Basic modes. Finally, the Galaxy S7’s display can also be viewed even while wearing polarized sunglasses, as Samsung has implemented a 45 degree angle on its polarizer.

We wouldn’t really have expected anything less from Samsung, but it’s still impressive that the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge continue to show notable display improvements over last year’s smartphones.

Lead Technical Writer at Android Authority, covering the latest trends in consumer electronics and hardware. In his spare moments, you'll probably find him tinkering with audio electronics and programming.